Koniving, on 10 March 2017 - 10:25 AM, said:
Exaggeration, though from what I last read, it was going to cost effectively "3 modules." Modules ranged from 2,000,000 to 6,000,000 each (so 6 to 18 million).
6 mil is still technically 3 modules so I suppose it wasn't wrong.
Exaggeration; also the compiled numbers for the original idea PGI peddled out in the first PTS for the skill tree was estimated at the high ends to be 16 to 20 mil.
Also: 227 mechs to level up from scratch. I'm gonna be shelling enough to buy every mech ever just to bring them to 'master' status.
If you take a serious look at what modules people put on their mechs, you are typically looking at 15 million as a bare bones utilization of all 5 of those slots (master slot included). The 2 most common mech modules listed in these threads are radar deprivation and seismic sensors. Each costs 6 million c-bill. Add to that the, the weapons modules, each coming in at 3 million, plus the "master" module slot. For the sake of pulling cost down, we'll say a 3rd weapon module is used. That gets us to 21 million c-bills to max out one mech without touching consumables. For the sake of addressing competitiveness, lets put this in the context of a single drop deck.
If you want to max out modules for 1 drop deck, we are realistically looking at 21 million c-bills x 4 mechs, or 84 million c-bills for one drop deck to be maxed out. This does not even touch the need to buy and level up extra variants along the way.
In the new system, it costs 5.46 million to maximize on mech, multiply that by 4 to fill a drop deck, and we are at 21.84 million, or roughly a quarter of the cost with the benefit of zero extra mechs to buy and level along the way.
so, assuming that all future mechs in the current system will use only those same modules as those 4 mechs from the drop deck, we can safe assert 84 million is where we can establish a "meeting" point of costs.
81 million divided by 5.46 million = 15.38 fully mastered mechs int he new system.
From this clear mathematical comparison set in the context of maximizing mech competitiveness in the context of the smallest number of mechs for a Faction Play, we can see that a new player can fully master 15 mechs for the same cost as the current module system costs. In order to make this example as directly translatable as possible, that means that the player would be required to choose no more than 5 different chassis to maintain this zero point of costs. The new system, however, would allow 15 different mech chassis to be purchased, rather than forcing 3 of a chassis to max out a mech.
What we can derive from this:
IF a new player in the new system restricts himself to only 5 chassis, each with 3 variants (like the current system of mastery), He can have 15 mechs for the same cost before he the old system starts to show a cost benefit over the new system.
Realistically, the new system allows a player to buy 15 different chassis rather than restricting them to 5 for maxing out these mechs.
The claim that the new system's costs are unreasonable can only really gain any traction as early as the 16th mech purchase assuming that the first 15 mechs were all from the same 5 chassis, and also that no other modules would be purchased to suit address possible build out differences.
Conclusion-
Those with big stables are right that this is more costly for them, but only after reaching an
absolute minimum threshold of 81 c-bills in module upgrades. That 81 million c-bills is just short of 4 complete drop decks of maximized mechs in the new system, none of which require "unwanted" variants along the way and also allows for a wide variety of modules to be added tailored to that mech rather than being locked down to the initial 20 modules exclusively.
Baseline comparison
If we use a single drop deck to create a baseline cost for comparison of maximized mechs both systems (4 mechs with 5 modules each in the old system, yielding an 81 million c-bill cost), using the restrictions of the old system (3 variants to master), we find that 15 mechs can be maximized in thew new system under those restrictions.
Realistically, new players would likely purchase a wider variety of mechs as they would not have to deal with the rule of 3 and would also not be limited by the set module abilities of those chosen for the first 4 mechs.
Large stable owners are really only affected after 81 million c-bills assuming they are rotating the same 8 mech modules and 12 weapon modules (that cost rises as module number increases to account for build variety).
With these numbers, it is hard to argue a hugely detrimental effect on those with competitive stables if they have been maintaining at least 1 drop deck worth of maxmized mechs as they, by refund of those modules alone, will be able to maximize almost 4 times as many mechs in the new system.
Those who have actually been maximizing by adding nodules and not just XP mastering mechs, will be able to fully maximize almost 4 mechs for each single maximized mech right now.
It is true that in the new system, those who have no c-bills will not be able to immediately return all of their mechs to a comparable amount of progress to the old system, just be aware that the new system isn't a bigger cost sink until after you upgrade those first 15 mechs, more than enough mechs to effectively compete and earn c-bills for your less utilized builds.
P.S. in the case you really wanted to low-ball the module costs, we could assume 3 mech modules at 2 million plus 2 weapon modules at 3 million, meaning a total of 12 million in the cheapest possible module layout for most mechs, totalling 48 million c-bills. That still provides for the max upgrade o 8.79 mechs in the new system, or enough for 2 complete drop dechs and a 9th mech 80% complete. Be aware that these utilize the much less desirable modules which already have a low probability of being used together, but provides a basement level cost of maximized mech drop dech.
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